Allspace in a Notshall

Okay, this is gross.   Seems there’s been four feet of fat removed from the walls of London’s sewers.  From the Independent:

Enough fat to fill nine double-decker buses is being removed from sewers under London’s Leicester Square.

A team of “flushers” equipped with full breathing apparatus has been drafted in with shovels to dig out an estimated 1,000 tonnes of putrid fat.

And powerful jets are being used to break it down.

The operation, which began in the early hours of this morning, is claimed to be the largest-ever sewer clean-up of its kind.

The build-up is the result of years of “sewer abuse” – when anything other than water, human waste and toilet paper is put down drains – according to Thames Water.

Danny Brackley, the water company’s sewer flusher, said: “We’re used to getting our hands dirty, but nothing on this scale.

“We couldn’t even access the sewer as it was blocked by a four-foot wall of solid fat.”

The clean-up is expected to last a couple of weeks.

Thames Water spends £12 million a year clearing around 55,000 sewer blockages across London and the Thames Valley.

Read the article and see a picture here.

You’re welcome.

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• Fat cleared from London sewers will fill nine double-decker buses (telegraph.co.uk)
• My Breakfast, It’s Coming Back Up: Four Feet Of ‘Fat’ Scraped From London Sewer Walls (geekologie.com)
• Workers Remove Walls of Solid Fat from London Sewers (towleroad.com)
• “Fatbergs” in Sewers Underneath London (neatorama.com)

Easily one of my favorite artists currently making music today, Venetian Snares, is set to release his next studio album on August 23rd.  It’ll be called “My So-Called Life” and comes in the standard CD, Vinyl and MP3 releases.  It will also be the first release on Aaron Funk’s new sublabel, Timesig.

Here is the release off the official page:

“My So-Called Life” is the first release on my brand new record label Timesig. The majority of these tracks were made quite quickly, in a day or 2 each. These are the ones I feel closest to, I can listen to one of these 10 tracks and remember that day exactly, all that I was feeling, just where my head was at, whether it was a good memory, a laugh, something that was bugging me or something bumming me out. Listening brings me back to that day, whereas hearing some of my other albums brings me back to some period in my life in general. I was explaining to a friend the other day, it was more like a collection of short stories than a novel for me. Diary entries he said, and they really are, pockets of inspiration realized within a day. For me it is remote viewing my own memories with clearer and clearer mind binoculars. All important pieces in my puzzle, this kind of filing system I have that sits outside my cognitive filing yet is clear in this system. Of course all of this probably means nothing to you but you have to write something in these things so when you send out promos nobody has to think of anything thoughtful to say about it themselves. Usually I write a bunch of preposterous shit to poke fun at that whole process but I didn’t feel like that today. Maybe tomorrow I will.

You can view the official release page at Planet Mu’s website here.  Cannot wait, especially for Hajnal2!

Fascinating article at Wired today:  “Leafy Green Coherence: Quantum Physics Fuels Photosynthesis”. Excerpt below:

A process called coherence allows photon energy to find the shortest path through a leaf’s surface by taking all possible paths simultaneously, then “picking” the best one. The resulting energy transfer is almost perfectly efficient.

Researchers hope these findings will guide the design of solar panels that are as efficient as nature’s, said Harel. In the meantime, scientists will continue looking for more evidence of quantum biology, which has been also been posited in the structure of DNA and operations of the mind.

Related articles:

• Diamonds and the holy grail of quantum computing (sciencedaily.com)
• Build a better quantum computer with diamond nanocrystals [Quantum Computing] (io9.com)
• The proton shrinks in size (nature.com)
• The incredible shrinking proton (sciencenews.org)
• DK Matai: What is The Quantum God Effect? ‘I am You, You are Me’ (huffingtonpost.com)

Found this interesting article on Reality Sandwich today talking about Terence McKenna and his lectures on his DMT trips.  It’s a fascinating read, but due to some of the author’s conclusions, I’ll have to read the article a few more times.

Here’s a controversial excerpt, bolds are mine:

I find Terence’s reflections on his DMT experiences to be valuable and insightful for a very different reason. When analyzed from the perspective of what I call the “Entheological Paradigm,” Terence’s experiences do not present us with an intrepid explorer discovering new realms. Rather, we are presented with a clear picture of an individual who is unable to recognize himself in the mirror of tryptamine consciousness. In short, Terence’s experiences boil down to one fundamental truth: They are the experiences of someone who is consuming very powerful entheogens, yet is failing to recognize the projections and creations of his own ego while in that state. From the perspective of unitary consciousness, Terence appears to have never managed to transcend his ego and therefore appears to have failed to realize the genuinely true potential of the entheogenic medicines he ingested.

When this perspective is understood, it becomes immediately clear that virtually all of what Terence has to say about DMT experiences are projections of his own ego. Terence has not explored some other realm or brought back valuable information for other would-be explorers, as he imagined himself doing. Instead, he explored the confused projections of his own ego and never achieved anything close to clarity about those experiences. Ultimately, Terence brought us deep and abiding confusion, and his confusion has subsequently been eagerly and whole-heartedly embraced by countless others in the entheogenic community. For the information that Terence brought back to us to be of any real use at all, it will be as a clear example of the mechanics of ego-projection, self-imposed confusion and reification of ideational realities. In my estimation, Terence shows us the complete opposite of DMT’s true potential. By understanding how this is so, we can begin to develop a clearer picture of what DMT is genuinely good for, and what it is not.

It’s actually a rather scathing view on McKenna, but I will say that it’s nice to see the flip side of opinions on McKenna. Personally, I’m a huge fan of his and have collected and listened to, multiple times, any and all video and audio materials I could get my hands on. But I also like to think that I’m open-minded enough to see how other people might not view what he had to say in the same light that I do.

Anyway, give it a read, especially if you’re a fan…

Found this on Disinfo via the Daily Mail today:

Americans who suggest Barack Obama should rot in hell are apparently deadly serious.

Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe the Democrat president ‘may be the Antichrist‘, according to a survey.

An even greater number compared him to Hitler.

More than half of the Republicans quizzed by Harris Poll, 57 per cent, believed the president was secretly Muslim, something he has consistently denied.

And 67 per cent of Republicans who responded believed Obama was a socialist, despite his central leanings.

The startling results came as lawyers representing 14 U.S. states filed lawsuits yesterday challenging an overhaul of the country’s $2.5trillion healthcare system, minutes after President Barack Obama signed the landmark legislation.

These people need to leave government service as quickly as possible. And I’m not talking about a nice retirement here either…

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• Quarter of Republicans think Barack Obama is ‘the Antichrist’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• AntiChristers: Nearly 25% of GOP Say Obama May be the AntiChrist (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)